Frailty Assessment Tools for Adults with Obesity: A Scoping Review

Purpose To identify, classify, and compare available tools for frailty assessment in adults with obesity. Methods A scoping review was conducted across five databases, including grey literature searches and an ascendancy approach. Seventeen studies were included, with a total sample size of 4,953,011 participants, of whom 4,931,181 were adults with obesity (99.56% of the total sample). Data on sample characteristics, assessment tools, and outcomes were extracted. Results The most common methodological approach was comorbidity-based instruments, used in 9 of the 17 included studies (52.9%), followed by syndrome-based instruments (4/17; 23.5%), performance-based instruments (2/17; 11.8%), and population-specific instruments (2/17; 11.8%). Among the ten instruments identified, the Frailty Index (FI) was the most frequently used. Conclusion There are ten different instruments for frailty assessment in adults with obesity, they are heterogeneous and mainly focus on comorbidity-related aspects. Currently, none of the instruments, methods, or tools identified in this review comprehensively captured the multidimensional nature of frailty in this population.